Playing off of the NCAA’s March Madness, Oswego bracketology sets up a fun-spirited fundraising competition between classes of Graduates Of the Last Decade.

SUNY Oswego’s Graduates Of the Last Decade (GOLD) not only surpassed an initial goal of 200 donors, but also a super goal of 225 donors in the Fourth Annual March Matchness fundraising challenge.

Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77, an Oswego College Foundation board member and School of Communication, Media and the Arts advisory board member, agreed to donate $10,000 to The Fund for Oswego if 200 Graduates Of the Last Decade made a gift during March.

After reaching the 200 donor goal with only three days left, Borrelli offered to increase his gift to $13,000 if 25 more GOLD alumni made their gift during March Matchness. With Borrelli’s challenge gifts, March Matchness raised a total of $18,618 for The Fund for Oswego.

“I am not surprised The GOLD Gang (a.k.a. ‘younger and better looking’ alumni) met and then exceeded this challenge,” Borrelli says. “Our collective investment will be put to good use, and I hope this experience inspires them to continue their philanthropic support of SUNY Oswego.”

The Class of 2012 had the most participants, beating out last year’s winner, the Class of 2009, and second-place finisher, the Class of 2013, which staged an exciting late-game comeback and nearly took the lead.

“March Matchness is one of our most exciting and entertaining initiatives,” says Joy Westerberg Knopp ’92, director of annual giving. “This year, Lou used social media to challenge young alumni to step up their game, and our Graduates Of the Last Decade responded in record numbers. We had fun while raising money to support a broad range of programs.”

March Matchness created a flurry of exchanges between classmates and between classes, as friends called, texted and posted their challenges to social media. The fundraising campaign stirred some participants to share their fondest memories of Oswego in an attempt to become the Player of the Week.

“We like to give back to the place that gave us so much,” says Vanessa Vair Reitz ’06, who serves as the GOLD Leadership Council president.

Not only did she meet her husband, Justin Reitz ’07, at Oswego, Vanessa says a connection they made at an alumni event assisted them in buying their home in Buffalo, N.Y., and helped Justin start a new career as a realtor. “We understand the benefit of connecting with our fellow alumni,” she says.

“Many of us young alumni aren’t at a point in life where we can give a substantial amount of money to Oswego,” she says. “But, we made a gift and, more importantly, I made an investment of my time for March Matchness. I’m proud that we were successful in reaching not only our initial goal, but the second challenge as well.”

—Margaret Spillett

]]>http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/fourth-annual-march-matchness-raises-over-18600/feed/0Communication Alumnus Supports SCMA with $30,000 Gifthttp://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/communication-alumnus-supports-scma-with-30000-gift/
http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/communication-alumnus-supports-scma-with-30000-gift/#commentsMon, 11 Aug 2014 16:57:24 +0000http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/?p=6025As a principal at Pricewaterhouse­Coopers, or PwC, Mark Lobel ’85 is responsible for providing consulting services to major entertainment media companies on cyber security issues. Since graduating from Oswego with a broadcasting and mass communication degree, he has witnessed major changes in the media, and says that this change is not over yet.

“I think we’re going to see another major shift in the way people consume media over the next 10 years,” he says.

It’s because of this dynamic market that he recently established the Lobel Communications Fund with a gift of $30,000 that includes a match from PwC to directly support the School of Communication, Media and the Arts.

“It’s important for Oswego to constantly reinvest in the communications program to reflect changes in the current market,” he says. “The pace of change in the media industry is overwhelming. Oswego needs to stay on top of this moving target.”

Lobel says he supports his alma mater because of the value of the education he received. He said mentors like the late Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell, after whom the media summit is named, and Fritz Messere ’71 M’76, now the dean of SCMA, instilled critical thinking beyond what was already a leading technical program at the time.

“I give back because I appreciate those who’ve helped me,” Lobel says. “I was and am extremely blessed, and one way to thank Fritz, Doc and many others is to invest in the next generation as they have done.”

— Tyler Edic ’13

]]>http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/communication-alumnus-supports-scma-with-30000-gift/feed/0Former Teacher Remembered Through Scholarshiphttp://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/former-teacher-remembered-through-scholarship/
http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/former-teacher-remembered-through-scholarship/#commentsMon, 11 Aug 2014 16:53:36 +0000http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/?p=6022The family of Kathleen Manley Peterson ’54 has ensured that her dedicated career in teaching and her impressive record of volunteer work will be remembered. A scholarship in her name will be awarded to an Oswego junior or senior majoring in education who maintains honor grades, has demonstrated volunteer activity and can, in an essay, articulate the reasons he or she will become a teacher.

Edwin Peterson ’54 and his late wife Katheen Manley Peterson ’54.

“Education was important to Kathy,” says Edwin Peterson ’54. “When she passed away in 1999, we set up a family foundation in her name. Last year, the children and I decided to turn the funds over to SUNY Oswego so that each year a student will receive a financial award in my first wife’s name.”

Kathleen earned a degree in elementary education at Oswego and a master’s from SUNY at Stony Brook; she taught 25 years. She and Edwin met at Oswego, where she was active in Alpha Delta Sorority, student council and women’s choir; Edwin was a member of Delta Kappa Kappa and student council and was editor of The Ontarian. Their children are: Jeffrey, retired vice president, Monsanto; Karen, a chemical engineer who became a teacher; Margaret, a physician; and Nancy, vice president of a Long Island hospital. Fourteen grandchildren are either college graduates, students or future students.

Commitments kept Edwin away from Oswego until he returned in 2004 for his golden anniversary reunion. He was pleased to see a photo in the next issue of OSWEGO Alumni Magazine showing him gazing into a sunset with a female classmate on each arm.

One of those women was Betsy Griswold Sweeting ’54, widow of Charles Sweeting, who taught industrial arts. She and Edwin began exchanging photos and news.

“After a while we decided that Oswego sunsets had worked their magic again,” Edwin says. A wedding followed, and the Petersons now divide their time between Betsy’s Minetto, N.Y., residence and the Long Island home Edwin and his family shared.

“I know that Kathy would be happy we have created a suitable memorial,” Edwin says. “Knowing her regard for education and her love of teaching, the family is confident that establishing the Kathleen A. Peterson ’54 Scholarship was the best thing we could do.”

—Linda Loomis ’90 M’97

]]>http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/former-teacher-remembered-through-scholarship/feed/0Family Establishes Scholarship to Honor Tom Lenihan ’76http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/family-establishes-scholarship-to-honor-tom-lenihan-76/
http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/family-establishes-scholarship-to-honor-tom-lenihan-76/#commentsMon, 11 Aug 2014 16:51:08 +0000http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/?p=6019A four-year scholarship enabling a deserving Oswego student to stay in school and concentrate on academics has been established in memory of Tom Lenihan ’76, former board member and chair of the Oswego College Foundation Investment Committee. His wife, Lynn Van Order Lenihan ’76, and children, Brian, a digital media strategist in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Colleen, director of a federally funded program for the New Jersey State Department of Education, decided to honor him in this way.

Tom ’76 and Lynn Van Order Lenihan ’76

The Tom Lenihan ’76 Memorial Scholarship will be awarded for the first time beginning in fall 2014 to a freshman with an excellent academic record and significant extracurricular involvement during high school. “Tom felt very strongly that education was important,” Lynn says. “He believed Oswego changed our lives for the better. That’s why the children and I wanted to do something to recognize his commitment to the college.”

One of six children, including Theresa ’79, Tom achieved high academic success in high school and had private university options. He chose, instead, to apply his New York State Regents Scholarship to expenses at SUNY Oswego and worked to meet other costs of earning his four-year degree in economics.

“Tom never complained about his need to work hard to get a college education,” Lynn says. “He was proud of his roots, and the fact that he had overcome financial challenges was a major factor in his desire to give back to Oswego, especially to the scholarship funds.”

Lynn says her husband was a
devoted member of the Oswego College Foundation Investment Committee. “Tom worked so hard to get the message out to people that students need financial support in order to focus on their classwork and do their best academically,”
she says.

Lynn and Tom met early in their freshman year at Oswego through Tom’s roommate, who had been Lynn’s classmate at Skaneateles High School. Tom had a successful career as an executive for MetLife before retirement in 2009; he died in 2013.

“We have been very fortunate,” Lynn says. “When Brian, Colleen and I talked about Tom and what his wishes might have been, we decided to help in this way. He would have been pleased to have this scholarship be part of his legacy at Oswego.”

—Linda Loomis ’90 M’97

]]>http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/family-establishes-scholarship-to-honor-tom-lenihan-76/feed/0Scholarship Makes On-Campus Living Available to Local Studenthttp://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/scholarship-makes-on-campus-living-available-to-local-student/
http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/11/scholarship-makes-on-campus-living-available-to-local-student/#commentsMon, 11 Aug 2014 16:13:54 +0000http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/?p=6001Because residence life meant so much to her, an alumna has established the Alice Nykaza ’65 Endowed Scholarship that will provide a scholarship, preferably for an Oswego County student who lives on campus. Alice Ericksen Nykaza ’65 says a significant portion of her education took place among other students in the “dorms” and snack bar.

“I graduated from a small high school,” Nykaza says. “I appreciated finding friends on campus who were different from everyone else I had known. I met wonderful people who ended up becoming lifelong friends. I established this scholarship to show my roommates how much they mean to me.”

She recalls long talks and card games with the late Cynthia Moulton Dean ’65, who went by Cam; Concetta Fazzi Castelluzzo ’65; Barbara Clausen ’65, a sophomore roommate, and Naomi Lane Ericksen, who married Nykaza’s brother after freshman year. After graduation, Dean and Nykaza gathered with Cathy Carroway Needham ’65 and Nancy Egerbrecht ’65 for long and boisterous hands of pinochle.

The “pinochle reunions” stopped briefly when Dean died, but the women found a mutual college friend, Arlene Guzicki Novak ’65, to be Nykaza’s partner, and games continued. “We used to play cards a lot more. Now we do a lot of talking,” Nykaza says.

Nykaza taught school for four years before taking time off for her children. For 35 years, she and her husband owned and operated Eddy’s Big M grocery store in Mexico, N.Y. After her husband died 24 years ago, she ran the store herself. She now lives in Baldwinsville, where she enjoys doing genealogical research. She had been thinking for a long time about providing a scholarship at her alma mater.

“I decided the way to do it,” Nykaza says, “was to give a young person from the area the opportunity to live on campus so he or she could enjoy the same positive benefits I had when I was a student at Oswego.”

“Don’t look at us like we are, sir. Please… See make-up, caked, in glowing powder pink! Imagine a beard, full blown and blowing, like the whiskers of a bear! And hair! Imagine hair. In a box I’ve got all colors, so I beg you — imagine hair! And not these clothes. Oh no, no, no. Dear God, not rags like any beggar has. But see me in a doublet! . . . Try to see it under light! I assure you — it’s dazzling!”

—the old actor “Henry” in The Fantasticks

Makeup, costumes, lighting, sets and sound. The combination of these can transform a bare stage into any time and place. The technical and wardrobe professionals behind the scenes create an alternate reality that inconspicuously transports audience members for an hour or two into a story. These pro­­fessionals often share the same goal—to go unnoticed, to not draw the eye nor jar the audience member from the tale unfolding on stage.

The following stories are dedicated to spotlighting some of Oswego’s Backstage Stars:

GEORGE DUMMITT ’69 is sitting on the hood of a cream-colored American Motors Gremlin on the set of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre in New York City. He is wearing a Local One union T-shirt, blue jeans, work boots. A quick-link hangs from his belt and holds his keys. A photographer snaps pictures of GEORGE.

GEORGE

[Looking out toward the audience]

Sitting where I am right now in the theatre, I can absolutely see the direct line back to Oswego.

[PHOTOGRAPHER repositions GEORGE on the car and snaps more pictures.]

There’s no question in my mind that what I do for a living—where I find all this satisfaction—
goes right back to Oswego and the time that I spent in theatre there.

[Special effects begin. Scene changes from the car at Belasco Theatre today, to a car in front of the 700 Building on SUNY Oswego Campus.]

GEORGE

[Looking out toward the audience]

So, I’m two years in the psychology program at Oswego, and on my 19th birthday,Michael Berkman ’69, who is a friend, gives me the keys to his Bonneville.

[GEORGE acknowledges MICHAEL, who addresses him.]

MICHAEL

Take it when you want it. Keep it in gas. Be careful. And let me know when you’re going
to take it.

[GEORGE nods toward MICHAEL. Then turns back to the audience.]

GEORGE

One night I wanted to borrow the car so I went to find Michael at the 700 Building—the old theatre building before Waterman existed.

[GEORGE walks into the 700 Building. His jaw drops as he scans a 16-foot high Gothic arch structure, with wrought iron fastenings on oak doors, marble steps and stained glass windows. Theatre Professor John Mincher stands to the side watching GEORGE’s reaction.]

Oh wait, that’s made out of plywood, and it’s been painted, and it’s got canvas on it, and that’s some sort of gelatin for the colored glass. Well, this could be fun…

[END OF SCENE]

For George Dummitt ’69, that moment in the 700 Building in 1967 has driven him to a successful career as a carpenter and stagehand in the New York City theatre world. Spanning more than 40 years, his career has enabled him to transform the three bare walls of a theatre into new scenes and time periods for a wide range of characters—a 1930s New York City boxing ring for Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy, an Elizabethan law court for an original practice version of Twelfth Night – Richard III, an Afghan war scene for a German transgender rock-n-roller in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and a dozen other productions.

“I started to think about all the characters, all the events, all the situations that have happened within my space,” Dummitt says. “It all goes in and out the same loading door. It’s amazing what I do for a living.”

However, there has been one space that hasn’t changed much for Dummitt—a Paris opera house at the Majestic Theatre in New York City—at which the Phantom of the Opera has been running for 27 years. He began loading in the show in September 1987—four months before it opened—and he continues to work as a member of the carpenter department there when he isn’t working on assignment to another Shubert theatre.

“We all knew it would be a good job, but we didn’t know it would be like this,” Dummitt says of Phantom, which surpassed Cats as the longest-running Broadway show. “I certainly know Phantom as well as anybody. Now, I listen for my cues, and I listen when there’s a new person or an understudy. You can’t listen every night. You’d go crazy.”

In 1997, Dummitt became head carpenter for the Shubert Organization’s Lyceum Theatre, and later transferred into the Shubert’s Belasco Theatre as head carpenter, a role he currently holds. He oversees the members of the carpenter department at the Belasco during load-ins, production runs and load-outs of a show. Then when that theatre goes dark between shows, he returns to his position at Phantom.

During load-ins, Dummitt and his crew assemble set pieces envisioned by the set designer and built at union scenic shops. If needed, the carpenter crew can be called on to build additional scenic elements on site as required by the design. They collaborate with electricians, props staff, actors and directors and develop carpenter and stagehand cues for the production. He clocks long days during this part of a show: a week’s pay stub has been known to show 92 hours worked.

Once the show has opened, his schedule lightens, dropping to 32 to 36 hours a week, or about 4.5 hours for each of the seven to eight shows a week. He memorizes his cues, responds to the slight variations that occur in live performances and ensures that set movement, curtain drops and scene changes all go smoothly.

Eventually, his least favorite part of his job arrives.

“I hate the last performance because everything you do will be for the last time,” says Dummitt, who hopes to be retired before that day comes for Phantom. “The last time you move the set, the last time you open the door, the last time you drop the curtain. There’s such a finality.”

Then, it’s load-out. Dummitt and his crew strip the stage, again leaving three bare walls—an empty space for the next production to fill with new characters, sets and situations.

AT CURTAIN:

It’s 1969. GEORGE is wearing a graduation cap and gown and has just graduated from SUNY Oswego. He addresses the audience, answering the question about his future plans.

GEORGE

So I started going to “work parties” on Saturday mornings at the campus theatre. We’d build the scenery for an upcoming show on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. And I found a whole group of people who I really liked, and who liked what I was doing. It was the opening of a whole new way to go. But I still got my degree in psychology because that seemed like a good thing to do. I first thought that after graduation maybe I’ll go into the theatre. But, no. It’s way too risky a business. It won’t take care of my wife and children.

[GEORGE takes off the cap and gown, and the scene changes into a dormitory hallway at the University of Buffalo.]

Now, I’m working as a head resident advisor in Tower dorm as I earn my master’s in student personnel and counseling for higher education. I figure someday I’ll run student housing or a counseling center on a college campus. One day I’m walking down the hallway when…

[The lights flicker. GEORGE stares at the lights and freezes.]

VOICE OF REASON

George, what are you doing here? You have no wife. You have no children.
What are you doing here?

GEORGE

I am on the Road to Damascus, as I like to think of it, and realize I was planning on people who didn’t exist. I am worried about providing for people who I didn’t have to care for yet. I finish my degree in counseling, because it never hurts to have a master’s in your pocket, and decide to give this theatre stuff a try.

[END OF SCENE]

The jump from a career in counseling to theatre wasn’t Dummitt’s first dramatic conversion. Raised Jewish, he became a Mennonite in seventh grade after attending some workshops and recreational programs sponsored by young Mennonite men who were doing alternative service in lieu of military service during the Vietnam War. The Mennonites taught Dummitt about ham radios and, more importantly, introduced him to the craft of carpentry.

His skills in woodworking and repairing things landed 16-year-old Dummitt a summer job as a carpenter at Manhattan General Hospital, where his mother worked as an administrative assistant. He decided he would study industrial arts at SUNY Oswego, which he says “was the industrial arts college at the time.” But the following summer—the summer before he came to Oswego, Dummitt transitioned from being a carpenter to a job in the drug addiction detox center at the hospital. The experience at the rehab center prompted him to write to Oswego and change his major from IA to psychology.

While he has never used his counseling and psychology degrees professionally, he says he probably draws on them every day.

Perhaps his counseling background helped him secure one of his most important roles in his life—that of a husband and father of four: Joanna, 35, working on a doctorate at UC Santa Cruz; David, 33, a speechwriter for Bloomberg Inc.; and 23-year-old identical twins, Jared, a research analyst at a New York City law firm who is applying to law schools, and Morgan, a professional sculptor.

He met his wife, Susan, during an opening night party for The Rink, starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera. Susan, a social worker, attended the event as a guest of a good friend who worked at a fashion house that had a relationship with Minnelli.

“There’s no reason in the world we should have met—except that we were supposed to,” Dummitt says. “I said the five hardest words a man can say to a woman, ‘Would you like to dance.’ She said yes and I brought her home that night in a taxi with 50 balloons from the party trailing behind us. Three years later, we married.”

Throughout their marriage, the Dummitts have supported each other’s careers and interests. George helped raise awareness and support for AIDS—a career focus for Susan for many years—by representing Phantom in the annual AIDS Walk NY, participating in Broadway’s Annual Easter Bonnet Competition and offering backstage “Tours with George” in exchange for a donation that benefits an AIDS charity.

Susan, in turn, developed a tradition of giving George an opening night gift tailored to the show.

“She expends a certain amount of creative energy in pursuit of the opening night gift,” George says, with a smile. Among his favorites are the ruby red slippers and flying monkey T-shirt he received and wore during opening night of Over the Rainbow, a retelling of the last months of Judy Garland’s life, and a small stuffed buffalo with a one-year certificate of adoption of a wildlife buffalo for the opening of David Mamet’s American Buffalo.

AT CURTAIN:

Present day. GEORGE in his jeans and T-shirt stands on stage at Belasco, with fellow crew members, as they run through set, lighting and sound cues during pre-show. House manager STEPHANIE WALLIS approaches the stage from the house. GEORGE sees where she’s heading and calls out to her.

GEORGE

Careful, Stephanie. The stairs will be moving on the next cue.

[STEPHANIE adjusts her positioning, just as a set of stairs slides out from beneath the stage into the house.]

TECHNICAL CREW MEMBER

[To GEORGE, lightly]

So, they’re going to put you on the cover of a magazine? Wow, it must be a slow news day.

[Other crew members join in the good-natured heckling. GEORGE shakes his head and smiles.]

GEORGE

Yeah, I know, I know.

[END OF SCENE]

Belasco Theatre

Within the Belasco Theatre, everyone knows Dummitt and Dummitt knows everyone. Within the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One, the oldest and highly respected entertainment union in the country, Dummitt is also well-known.

“I represent 3,200 members, but I know George personally,” says James Claffey Jr., president of IATSE Local One. “He’s in the front row at every union meeting, and he mentors new members and gives them our history.”

Claffey recruited Dummitt to serve on the Broadway negotiating committee because he is “credible and well-respected with union employees as well as the employers on the other side of the table.”

In 2007, a Local One strike closed down Broadway for 19 days, and Dummitt came up with the “We are One” slogan and helped keep the members’ spirits up, Claffey says.

“He is a master carpenter, a great collaborator, and his work ethic is nothing short of excellent,” Claffey says. “We’re lucky to have him.”

Faculty and alumni of the Oswego theatre department share that sentiment as well.

“I consider George to be the most important theatre alumnus Oswego has graduated,” says John Mincher, a retired technical theatre professor who helped found the department in the 1960s. “He is an amazing carpenter and a very caring person. He single-handedly established an annual breakfast reunion for technical and design alumni in New York City that evolved into the annual theatre reunion that is still held today. He set up backstage tours of Broadway theatres for our students and faculty, and he helped open doors for Oswego alumni.”

Dummitt has also established two endowed funds at Oswego: George Dummitt ’69 Resident Assistant Fund to support resident assistants with financial need and the George Dummitt ’69 Technical Theatre Fund, which enables the department to bring to campus high-profile theatre professionals to speak in classes and to purchase materials and equipment beyond what the shrinking state budget allows.

In addition to the funding, Theatre Professor Kitty Macey says Dummitt has contributed to the department in ways that no amount of funding could. He uses his personal connections to share his peers’ professional work with students and to help Oswego alumni get their foot in the door, which is often the hardest part of making it in New York.

“He is just an amazing man,” Macey says. “He has been instrumental in helping so many people do so many things. He is a very generous person. He goes out of his way to support his alma mater.”

Through Dummitt’s efforts, the Oswego theatre department has copies of all the blueprints and plans for the Broadway production of Big River and the costume “bible” for Golden Boy, including 2014 Tony nominated designer Catherine Zuber’s sketches, fabric swatches, photos from the fittings of each character, charts for dressers, everything that costume professionals in New York City would need to costume a show.

True to his backstage style, Dummitt is quick to redirect the attention.

“Oswego led me to this very fulfilling life,” he says. “I feel that I owe Oswego. When I’m presented with the opportunity, it’s my responsibility to give back.”

AT CURTAIN:

GEORGE stands off stage as the cast takes their bows at curtain call. The lead characters turn toward the wings and beckon GEORGE onto the stage. The cast separates to clear out center stage for GEORGE. He looks out into the audience to see generations of SUNY Oswego faculty, students and alumni giving him a well-deserved standing ovation.

]]>http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/08/taking-center-stage/feed/0Reunion 2014 — Passport to Oswegohttp://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/07/reunion-2014-passport-to-oswego/
http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/2014/08/07/reunion-2014-passport-to-oswego/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 19:30:09 +0000http://www.oswego.edu/magazine/?p=5896More than 1,000 alumni and guests used their “Passport to Oswego” June 5-8 to reconnect and reminisce with old friends and see all the exciting new changes on our lakeside campus. The weekend-long celebration included 18 mini-reunion groups and 17 milestone anniversary classes.

A total of $892,867 was raised by all Reunion classes for The Fund for Oswego. The Reunion Giving Participation Cup was awarded to the Class of 1954, with a 33 percent participation rate. The Class of 1989 broke the record for the largest gift from a class celebrating its 25th anniversary by raising $164,425, beating the previous record of $125,590 held by the Class of 1987.

Sisters from Phi Lambda Phi hit the dance floor during the Greek Social Saturday night.

Classmates of Patricia Russell Secrest ’64 gathered during Reunion Weekend to dedicate a memorial bench for which they raised funds that looks out over Lake Ontario between Riggs and Waterbury halls.

Friends and family shared memories as they announced the establishment of the “Free and Easy Forever” fund, which seeks to raise money to create a new memorial between Seneca and Tyler halls for four alumni lost on 9/11 and Pan Am 103: Colleen Brunner ’90, Richard Caproni ’89, Michael Hannan ’89 and Lynne Hartunian ’89. Call 315-312-3003 or email develop@oswego.edu for more details.